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In
the center of Umberto I Plaza is one of the
principal sacred buildings of the city of Gela.
the mother church. It was built between 1766
and 1799 on the remains of an ancient federician
church, Santa Maria della Platea, and is currently
devoted to the Madonna dell'Assunta. The different
changes brought to the building have embellished
the structure with a magnificent bell tower,
in 1837, and with the insertion in the façade
in neoclassic style of two orders of semicolomns
with ionic and dorian type capitals (1844),
both planned by an architect from Gela, Emanuele
Di Bartolo. The church is characterized by
a beautiful eighteenth-century dome; the inside
of it is renovated to a Latin cross, it preserves
precious works of art, among which there is
a splendid table of clear Byzantine manufacture,
representing the Madonna dell'Alemanna, protectress
of the city, and another going back to the
year 500, that represents the transit of the
Virgin, and it is attributed to Deodato Guinaccia. |
